A potentially interesting story about healing and recovery through art.
Unfortunately, I found the narrative riddled with cliches. The isolated French island where villagers drink bottles of wine and cider; the French priest in beret and blue linen jacket; characters are constantly looking at their watches; burying the face in the sheets to smell the last traces of a loved one; staring across the water at the horizon; the woman with the shining eyes.
And although great care was taken with language when describing painting, music, and the landscape--designated passages of description--the bulk of the writing was ordinary. Examples: "Lorca had closed her eyes while she spoke and she opened them now and looked at me." Dull. "I looked at her hands. They were long-fingered..." Why not write, Her hands were long-fingered...? We don't need to be told that he had to look at her hands in order to see what they were like.
I was surprised to read that Leo inherited money from Brother Adams. Perhaps not all Christian orders take vows of poverty, but I still don't imagine that brothers have much in the way of possessions--for example, enough for a legacy to help set up a young man who wants to become an artist in Paris.
And *if* a boy was allowed to touch a painting by Corot in an art gallery, that's so unlikely that it strains belief.
Too many problems in this book. Disappointed. ( )